The Rwandan genocide resulted from a complex mixture of political, social, and economic factors. However, by virtue of the capitalist system in Rwanda, profit production was a highly motivating incentive. Even before colonization, Rwandan societal divisions between Hutu and Tutsi were based on wealth as opposed to race. The implication of this is that affluence, prosperity and status had been intertwined for a long portion of Rwandan history and that established the underlying competition between the haves and have nots. Those who were prosperous had usually been Tutsi, who owned more land and thus more crops and the lower class had consisted of Hutus, who owned less land and thus less crops, until the 1959 revolution. Suddenly, there was a
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Document A depicts a mountainside that is covered in dozens of small rectangular farms that continue from the base of the hill all the way up to the top of the incline. In the image with farms on what appear to be almost totally vertical inclines, it is abundantly clear that the finite amount of cultivable land is being overfarmed. This over farming diminishes the amount of food that is produced. In relation with the high population density, this means that the land is being forced to overproduce to feed all of these people, which kills the land even more, and results in an exponential application of Malthusian theory but with an even worse twist. Crop production is on a downward trend while population is continually increasing, and this threatens everybody. Under normal food production circumstances, this crisis would be bad enough, but the added deterioration of arable land produces abysmal conditions. Because farmland is invaluable both to feed the country 's massive population and to generate income some citizens to this day still advocate for the removal of population to balance the …show more content…
The competition over land and wealth both rekindled dormant conflicts and initiated new ones between the Hutus and Tutsis.
Even rudimentary survival needs such as food were valued enough that Hutus and Tutsis felt the need to answer the competition for resources through deliberate killing of the other. Hutus also felt exploited from the era where Tutsis had established biased financial institutions that disproportionately favored Tutsi over Hutus in society. Additionally, the universally felt effects of the stagnant economy were also another motivating factor for Rwandan Hutus to label Tutsis at Patsis, because they were so desperate for a relief from their dire financial situation.
Finally, the cultural and political differences that also contributed to this conflict were in actuality just politicized reactions to or manifestations of the monetary troubles at hand. The economic misfortune was an notable instigator for the 1994 Rwandan
Document A depicts a mountainside that is covered in dozens of small rectangular farms that continue from the base of the hill all the way up to the top of the incline. In the image with farms on what appear to be almost totally vertical inclines, it is abundantly clear that the finite amount of cultivable land is being overfarmed. This over farming diminishes the amount of food that is produced. In relation with the high population density, this means that the land is being forced to overproduce to feed all of these people, which kills the land even more, and results in an exponential application of Malthusian theory but with an even worse twist. Crop production is on a downward trend while population is continually increasing, and this threatens everybody. Under normal food production circumstances, this crisis would be bad enough, but the added deterioration of arable land produces abysmal conditions. Because farmland is invaluable both to feed the country 's massive population and to generate income some citizens to this day still advocate for the removal of population to balance the …show more content…
The competition over land and wealth both rekindled dormant conflicts and initiated new ones between the Hutus and Tutsis.
Even rudimentary survival needs such as food were valued enough that Hutus and Tutsis felt the need to answer the competition for resources through deliberate killing of the other. Hutus also felt exploited from the era where Tutsis had established biased financial institutions that disproportionately favored Tutsi over Hutus in society. Additionally, the universally felt effects of the stagnant economy were also another motivating factor for Rwandan Hutus to label Tutsis at Patsis, because they were so desperate for a relief from their dire financial situation.
Finally, the cultural and political differences that also contributed to this conflict were in actuality just politicized reactions to or manifestations of the monetary troubles at hand. The economic misfortune was an notable instigator for the 1994 Rwandan